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PEOPLE'S COLLEGE 



OP THE 



STATE OF NEW YORK, 



Incarpornted by Act of the IiegislaturCf passed April 13) 1853. 



NEW YORK: 

WYNKOOP, HALLENBEOK & THOMAS, PRINTBE8, 

No. 113 Fulton Strbbt. 

1860. 



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msw T@KK PUBL. ttea,, 

IN EXCHANGE. 



PEOPLE'S COLLEGE. 



This Institution, of wliicli a brief account follows, was 
incorporated by an Act of the Legislature of the State of New 
York, April 12th, 1854, and was located at the village of Ha- 
vana, in Schuyler county, N. Y., January 8th, 185t. 

College Edifice. 

This will be spacious and imposing. Its length will be 320 
feet, and its width 52 feet. It will be four stories high, with 
a basement. At either end will be a wing 206 feet long, 52 
feet wide, and four stories high. 

From the centre will be a wing projecting rereward 10 feet ; 
64 feet wide, and three stories high. The building will be 
surmounted by a cupola of an octagonal form, 36 feet in diame- 
ter, and extending upwards 50 feet from the apex of the roof 
A cupola is also to be placed on each of the end wings. The 
basement walls of the structure are to be of stone ; the re- 
maining portion of the walls are to be of brick. 

This building will contain a chapel of a capacity to seat 
thirteen hundred persons ; 16 lecture rooms; 47 rooms for the 
president, professors, secretary, treasurer, &c., and 220 cham- 
bers for students, each being arranged for the accommodation 
of two persons. It will also contain a culinary department, 
and rooms for the steward, servants, &c. 

Plan of the College. 

It is the intention of the Trustees to make this Institution 
not only the best so far as practical knowledge is concerned, 
but to afford opportunities to all who may desire them, for ob- 
taining as thorough a knowledge of all that pertains to science 
or literature, as any other institution in the world. Curricula 
of study have not been yet fully prepared. At a recent meet- 
ing of the Board, the following resolutions were, however, 
adopted : 



1. That, until otherwise ordered, the Trustees of this Col- 
lege will endeavor to endow or otherwise provide for the main- 
tenance of the following named Professorships in this institu- 
tion, viz. : 

1st. A Professorship of Natural and Revealed Theology. 

2d. Of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy. 

3d. Of Jurisprudence and Political Economy. 

4th. Of Logic, and the Science and Art of Instruction. 

5th. Of Ancient and Modern History. 

6th. Of English Literatui'e, Rhetoric, and Oratory. 

1th. Of Taste as applied to the Arts, and of the History of 
the Arts. 

8th. Of Anatomy, Physiology, Hygiene, and Veterinary. 

9th. Of Natural History, comprising Zoology, Ichthyology, 
and Entomology. 

10th. Of Chemistry, Botany, and Mineralogy. 

11th. Of Agricultural Chemistry, and Chemistry as applied 
to the Arts, and Geology. 

12th. Of Practical Agriculture. 

13th. Of Horticulture. 

14th. Of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. 

15th. Of the Application of the Sciences to the Arts, com- 
prising Architecture, Engineering, &c. 

16th. Of Geography, Meteorology, and Astronomy. 

17th. Of the Latin and Greek Languages. 

18th. Of the Modern Languages. 

19th. Principal of the Preparatory Department. 

2. That there shall be established three Courses of Study in 
this College, which shall be severally denominated Classical, 
Scientific, and Provisional or Select ; and, for admission to the 
Classical department, students shall be required to sustain an 
examination in such studies as are now required to be pursued 
in order for admission to the other Colleges of the State. Stu- 
dents designing to pursue the Scientific Courses of Study 
shall be required to sustain an examination in English Gram- 
mar, Geography, Arithmetic, and Algebra, through Simple 
Equations. For admission to the Provisional or Select Course 



of Study, no more shall bo required, than that the student shall 
have capacity and culture sufficient to enable him to pursue 
with profit to himself, and without hindrance to others, the 
branch or branches of study of his choice. 

The length of the College Course to be pursued in the Clas- 
sical and Scientific Departments, to entitle students in the one 
case to the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and in the other to that of 
Bachelor of Science, shall be four years. Students, however, 
who may enter the College with the intention of pursuing a 
select course of study, shall, at the close of their course, be 
entitled to an examination in the branches pursued by them, 
and, if meritorious, to a certificate or diploma, signed by the 
President of the College, and such other persons as may 
be hereafter designated, which shall expressly specify the 
branches pursued by them. 

More recently, it has been established, that at an early day, 
a Preparatory Department shall be opened, to be connected 
with the College, to which the privileges of labor, so far as 
practicable, shall be extended ; and that earnest efforts shall 
be made to keep the expenses of students at this College, in- 
cluding Tuition, Board, and Eoom-rent, as low as $120 per 
annum. Each student will be allowed the avails of his labor, 
and, if so disposed, to apply them to the reduction of his ex- 
penses. 

The College year will be divided into two terms of twenty 
weeks each, with two vacations of six weeks each, beginning, 
severally, about the twentieth of January and of July. 

This College will be distinguished from others by giving 
prominence to studies suited to qualify its graduates for dis- 
charging the practical duties of life, and to means of elevating- 
labor. 

The College is situated on a farm of 200 acres, adjoining the 
village of Havana (within a few hundred rods of the centre 
of the village, in the near vicinity of churches, post-office, 
stores, hotels, &c.), and suitable work-shops are to be attached. 
Here, then, the student, who determines to become a farmer or 
a mechanic, may study agriculture by laboring on the farm, 



under the direction of a practical scientific farmer, from two 
to four hours of each of five days in every week, or may pur- 
sue the business of his choice, under a practical mechanic, for 
the same number of hours ; and devote the remaining portion 
of each day to such branches of study as are most essentially 
necessary to the future business of his life; or to the common 
and hig-her branches of a literary course. 

With the aid of machinery and material, it is believed, that 
students in the mechanical department may not only become 
better mechanics in the same term of apprenticeship, than at 
our shops as now conducted, and obtain the education so essen- 
tial to their future success in life, but that they may, from the 
avails of their labor, defray a large proportion, if not all, the 
expenses incurred in the course ; obtaining thus the satisfac- 
tion to know, that they have worked their way through col- 
lege, got a trade, and have been graduated independent men. 
And the same remarks, with no modification in the principle, 
will apply to students in the agricultural department. 

Here, likewise, persons of mature life, and such as do not 
desire to pursue a regular course of study in the college, either 
the more extended or an abbreviated course, may resort to 
secure the advantages of the regular courses of Lectures on 
Agricultural Chemistry, Geology, Mechanics, and the Sciences 
generally (providing the means of doing it, if they choose, by 
working on the farm or in the shops), and become familiar with 
those branches of science most essential in their respective 
avocations. 

Motives which have Prompted to the Organization of the 
Institution. 

a. The belief that moneys which will be expended on this 
Institution, would not, without its existence, be used to pro- 
mote the cause of learning, and that many of the youth who 
will be educated here would never find a place within other 
college walls.* 

* There have ah-eady been some three hundred applications made by young men, for ad- 
. mission to this College, when it shall he opened for their reception, not fifty of whom would 
ever apply for admission to one of our older Colleges. 



b. Tlie fact that the important work to be done in this country 
to sustain our various institutions, political, civil, domestic 
and religious, and to advance civilization, is, to educate the 

PEOPLE. 

c. The belief that a modification of the college system of this 
country is required, to adapt it more perfectly to the wants of 
the time. 

There has been a vast extension of the physical sciences 
within the last fifty years : Agriculture is now reduced to a 
science, and the principles of Mechanics have been applied to 
Machinery, to the extent so astonishing, that the people of 
England perform daily, by means of it, what it would require 
six hundred millions of men to effect. 

d. The complete success of Seminaries, established in Euro- 
pean countries, for the promotion of the sciences and useful 
arts, on plans similar to that of the People's College. 

e. Institutions of this character, it is perceived, generally 
established, would perfect our common school system, by 
affording all an opportunity of continuing their education 
while learning a trade or pursuing agriculture ; thus remedy- 
ing the groat evil which now compels a largo proportion of our 
youth to discontinue their scientific and literary education at 
the age of twelve or fourteen years, in order to become farmers 
or mechanics. 

f. If young men can partially defray their expenses at an 
Institution of this nature, then it presents inducements for those 
who are indigent, and who are influenced by religious motives, 
to avail themselves of its advantages, — thus relieving other 
educational associations of their proffered benevolence. Many, 
who are prominent, in this and foreign lands, for their Chi-istian 
philanthropy, have been educated on principles similar to this, 
and are indebted to their mechanical skill, no less than to their 
mental and religious culture, for their widely extended influ- 
ence. 

g. The Hon. Charles Cook, who resides in the village of Ha- 



8 

vana, the site of the Colleg'e, has signified his purpose to bestow 
upon the Institution a large proportion of his ample estate. 

Moral Instruction. 
This College is located on a farm in the country, removed 
from the corrupting influences of large cities. The society 
will be composed of the Professors in the various departments 
and their families, together with the families of such as may 
locate in the immediate vicinity, for the purpose of educating 
their children, and the people of Havana, a village of about 
fifteen hundred inhabitants. Students will, therefore, be sur- 
rounded by a healthful and moral influence and restraint, and 
every effort, suggested by Revelation, a knowledge of the hu- 
man mind, and experience, will be made to give them a high- 
toned moral training. 

Physical Education. 

By a law of nature, it is made necessary that the young 
should have regular dailj^ exercise, in a pure and healthful at- 
mosphere, to properly develop the human system, and to estab- 
lish such a strong and vigorous constitution as will enable 
them to endure severe physical or mental labor, without 
permanently injuring health. This important branch of educa- 
tion is, from the necessity of the case, almost entirely omitted 
in our Colleges and higher Seminaries, and the result is, that 
many of the most diligent students graduate with an enfeebled 
constitution or broken health. To remedy this great defect, 
to elevate labor, and enable the poor to avail themselves of 
advantages heretofore chiefly enjoyed by the wealthy, our 
charter requires students to devote two hours each, of five 
days in every week, to bona fide labor, in some branch of pro- 
ductive industry. 

Progress of the Work. 

The College was organized on the 12th day of August, 1851. 

The main edifice, which is 216 feet long, 52 feet wide, and 4 

and 5 stories high, above the basement, together with a rere- 

ward projection from the centre, 10 feet long by 64 wide, and 



three stories hig-h, is erected, and will be soon ready for the re- 
ception of students. 

A President and three Professors have been appointed. 

The cost of the College edifice, when finished, is estimated 
at $175,000. $300,000 will be required as a fund for the sup- 
port of Professors, and from $15,000 to $100,000 for the erec- 
tion of shops, purchase of machinerj^, apparatus, library, cabi- 
nets, &c. A considerable proportion of this sum will be 
covered by Mr. Cook's subscription, and that will be largely in- 
creased by what has been promised by others ; but there is a 
broad margin still to be filled, and an opportunity thus afforded 
for all who are disposed to co-operate in consummating this 
great and benevolent undertaking. 

Situation and Access. 

Havana is situated at the head of Seneca Lake, on the Che- 
mung Railroad, which connects the villages of Elmira and 
Canandaigua. The Chemung Canal, also, passes through the 
place. The site is uncommonly picturesque and pleasing, as 
well as convenient of access from all parts of the country. 

Passing, now, from this brief exposition of our purposes 
and plans, we solicit from all, a careful examination of our 
Charter ; and, if convinced that our plans are practicable, 
and, when carried out, will stimulate to a more general effort 
to obtain the advantages of mental discipline and useful 
knowledge, and will afford to many the benefits of an educa- 
tion, who, but for the College, could never obtain them, we ask 
them, as philanthropists, to lend their influence and " material 
aid" to complete the work ; for, if such an Institution is 
desirable, why shall it not be, at once, built and endowed ? 

Portions of the Charter as Amended by the Regents of the 

University. 

Section 1. The Governor and Lieutenant-Governor of this 
State, the Speaker of the House of Assembly, and the Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction shall severally (in addition to 
the President of the said College, as already provided for) be ex 



10 

offioio members of the Board of Trustees of the said College. 
There shall be twenty-four Trustees of the said College, exclu- 
sive of the ex officio Trustees ; and the present Board of Trustees, 
with the ex officio Trustees above named, shall continue to be 
the Trustees of the said College without any further election. 
The said Board of Trustees and their successors are authorized 
to fill all vacancies which may from time to time occur in their 
number, by death, resignation, or otherwise. 

Section 2. The fourth section* of the said charter is hereby 
amended by adding thereto as follows: "Nor shall any real 
estate of the College be leased for a term exceeding three 
years, nor shall any by-laws of the Board of Trustees be re- 
pealed or amended, or any new by-law be adopted unless by 
the same vote." 

Section 3. There shall be an annual meeting of the said 
Trustees, at the College, at such time as they may by their 
standing by-laws prescribe ; on which day, the persons who 
have contributed to the funds of the said College, and who are 
designated in the said Charter as stockholders, and who hold 
or are entitled to certificates of the character hereinafter men- 
tioned, may also hold a meeting at the said College, and appoint 
a committee of their number, not exceeding five, who shall have 
power to examine into the condition of the said College, its 
course of instruction, its finances, and all other matters per- 
taining to its welfare, and to report on the same to the Trustees, 
with any recommendations they may deem proper. A copy of 
every such report shall be transmitted by the Trustees to the 
Regents of the University with their annual report to the Re- 
gents, and the said Trustees shall state what action, if any, has 
been had on the said report, and in case they have declined to 
adopt the recommendations thereof, either wholly or in part, 
they shall state their reasons for so doing. 

Section 4. The capital stock of the said corporation, as es- 

*§4. The said Board of Trustees shall appoint the President, Professors, and such other 
officers and instructors as they deem necessary; hut no President, Professor, or other officer 
of the College shall he appointed or removed, and no real estate hought or sold, except by a 
vote of two-thirds of the members of the Board. 



11 



tablishcd by the sixth section of the Charter, shall hereafter be 
divided into shares of fifty dollars each: and every person who 
shall heretofore have contributed, or who may hereafter con- 
tribute at least that amount to the funds of the Institution, 
shall be entitled to receive a certificate therefor, in substan- 
tially the following- form: 

STATE OF NEW YORK : 

It is hereby certified that AB has contributed dollars 

to the funds of " The People's College," an institution char- 
tered by the Legislature of the State of New Yoi'k, on the 
twelfth day of April, 1853; in virtue of which contribution the 
said A B has become a stockholder in the said Institution to 

that amount, representing shares of fifty dollars each, 

which will entitle the said stockholder to one vote on each of 
the said shares actually held by him, at all meetings of the 
said stockholders. The said stock is transferable on the books 
of the said corporation in such manner as may be provided by 
its by-laws. 

In witness whereof, the President and Treasurer (or other pro- 
per officers) of the said College have hereunto subscribed their 
names this day of — • — . 

No periSon, unless he holds or is entitled to a certificate of 
the character aforesaid, shall be entitled to vote at the annual 
"meeting of the contributors hereinbefore provided for; and 
every person shall be entitled at any such meeting to one vote 
for every fifty dollars contributed by him. The four ex officio 
Trustees, hereinbefore appointed, shall be the representatives 
of all persons who have contributed to the said College smaller 
amounts than fifty dollars each : and they, or any or either of 
them, may attend any such meeting as aforesaid, and vote on 
the aggregate contributions to the said College of less than 
fifty dollars, each in like manner as other contributors. The 
said Trustees may accept contributions to the said College 
to an amount not exceeding One Million of dollars in the ag- 
gregate, to be considered as stock under the Charter as afore- 



12 



said, and for which certificates maybe issued of the form above 
provided for. 

Section 5. The said Trustees may organize the said College, 
and establish a course of instruction therein, as soon as they 
shall deem the same advisable, and may also make such by- 
laws as they shall deem proper in relation to the management 
of the said Institution, and the course of instruction therein, 
in the several particulars specified in the eighth section of the 
Charter, and particularly as to the persons who shall actually 
perform labor in some branch of productive industry, and the 
time they shall so labor, and the terms on which students shall 
be permitted to graduate ; provided such by-laws be not 
inconsistent with the fundamental principles of the charter, 
as to which the said Regents may determine, should any ques- 
tion arise in regard thereto. The fourth subdivision of the said 
eighth section of the Charter is hereby repealed. 

Section 6. The Regents may, at any time, alter, amend, or 
repeal this ordinance. 

TRUSTEES OF THE COIiliEGE. 

Amos Brown, LL. D., President of the College. 

Edwin D. Morgan, Governor of the State. 

KoBERT Campbell, Lieutenant Governor of the State. [ Ex-Officio Members. 

De Witt C. Littlejohn, Speaker of the Assembly. 

Henry H. Van Dyke, Sup't of Public Instruction. 

Daniel S. Dickinson, LL. D., Binghainton, Ch'n of Board, 

Charles Cook, Havana, Secretary. 

Washington Hunt, Lockport. 

Constant Cook, Bath. 

Horace Greeley, New York. 

Asa D. Smith, D. D., New York. 

Erastus Brooks, New York. 

D. C. McCallum, New York. 
Edwin B. Morgan, Aurora. 
Thomas Hillhouse, Geneva. 
A. B. Dickinson, Hornby. 
Thurlow Weed, Albany. 
John Magee, Bath. 

E. C. Frost, Montonr. 
Geo. J. Pumpelley, Owego. 



13 

T. K. Morgan, Binghamton. 
A. I. Wynkoop, Chemung. 
EoswELL HoLBEN, Reading. 
David Rees, Owego. 
S. Robertson, Ithaca. 
George D. Beers, Ithaca. 
C. J. Chatfield, Painted Post. 
W. H. Banks, Pine Valley. 
Joseph Carson, Burdett. 



T. L. MiNiER, Esq., Havana, Treasurer. 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 

Hon. Charles Cook, Havana. 

Hon. Constant Cook, Bath. 

Hon. Thomas Hillhouse, Geneva. 

Hon. Lucius Robinson, Elmira. 

Hon. A. B. Dickinson, Hornby. 

Rev. F. G. HiBBARD, D. D., Canandaigua. 

Rev. Amos Brown, LL. D., Havana. 

PROFESSORS EliECT. 

Rev. Amos Brown, LL. D., President of the College, 

F. G. HiBBARD, D. D., 

Timothy H. Porter, 
William W. Folwell. 

EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE 
FRIENDS OF THE INSTITUTION. 

" Sir, I g-o heartily with this Institution in its attempt to 
solve the problem of a right combination of physical with 
mental labor, and of both, so far as possible, with self- 
support. 

" The great object of a People's College, and one that would 
justify any outlay, is to unite, in the same person, the hands 
that do the working with the head that does the thinking. It 
is the mastery of nature by science, and then the intelligent 
application of science, with and without mechanism, to the pur- 
poses of human life. It is one great feature of this age, that 
mechanism and science are in such intimate combination with 



14 

all our industrial products and pursuits." — Bev. Mark Hopkins, 
D. D., President of Williams College, at the laying of the Corner- 
stone of the College. 

" Out of this impulse, so wise, so benevolent, so accordant 
with Christianity— born of it, indeed — so harmonious with all 
our political economies, this Gollege has grown. In its adapta- 
tions of science to all popular uses ; in the choices of study it 
will afford ; in its gratuitous provisions ; in its facilities for 
self-support ; in its mechanical and agricultural models ; in 
the opening of its lectures to men of all classes ; in the con- 
nection and fellowship it proposes, of minds in the lower pro- 
cesses of culture with those in the higher ; the noble design is 
to make it in deed just what it is in name. While its lights 
shall gleam upon the summits of society — in a peculiar sense 
it may be said — there is no vale so lowly but shall be glad- 
dened by it. 

" One of its most praiseworthy offices shall be, to draw from 
obscurity 

* Many a gem of purest ray serene.' 

" Let this goodly enterprise go onward ! Let nothing stay 
it ; let all lend it a helping hand. It has had, thus far, not 
only the increasing favor of the community at large, but the 
manifest smile of a benignant Providence." — Bev. Asa D. Smith, 
D. D., Neio York. 

" Let each contribute who can, and a Seminary shall here be 
established which shall prove a blessing — the parent of kindred 
blessings — to your children and your children's children 
throughout future time." — Horace Greeley, New York. 

" Sir, the People's College marks a new epoch in the history 
of education in this country." — Bev. F. G. Hibhard, D. D. 

"I bid 'God-speed' to the College, and the liberal minds 
whose influence and money are rearing its walls above the 
foundation, this day commenced." — Hon. A. S. Diven, Elmira. 

" The People's College is of the people, and for the peo- 
ple, and will be sustained by the people." — Ex-Governor Clark. 



15 



" If rightly conducted, the People's College will inaugurate 
a new era in moral and physical science, and will give firm- 
ness as well as harmony and beauty to the social structure : 
it will quicken the pulsations of society, and leap from the 
old cumbrous system which has ministered only to the few, to 
a system which will, in its fertilizing influences, cheer and 
bless the many." — Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson, LL. D. 

" Called upon to speak for the Colleges of Western New 
York, I would say, that these Colleges feel no jealousy 
towards the People'B College. Its plans and aims (ire widely 
different, and there need be no interference or invidious com- 
petition. The mass to be educated is vast enough to absol'b 
the energies, and occupy, to the utmost, the best appliances 
of all." — Bev. Dr. Jackson, President of Hohart Free College. 

" We mingle our joyful congratulations over such a vigor- 
ous and promising addition to the great family of Colleges 
and Universities of our State." — Rev. Dr. Coicles, President of 
Elmira Female College. 

. " In conclusion, I do but express the praj^er of the thou- 
sand hearts before me, when I say, ' Heaven bless the People's 
College,' and may it shed a mild and enduring glory upon the 
ages to come !" — Eev. William H. Goodwin, D.D. 

" It is truly an important addition to the educational sys- 
tem of our State. It opens a new and inviting avenue to the 
higher walks of science and learning, and will afford the 
means of mental culture and development to hundreds of our 
young men, whom natiire has endowed with intellect and 
genius, while withholding the advantages of fortune. I can- 
not but regard it as one of the most laudable and judicious 
efforts of the day, for the diffusion of knowledge, and the im- 
provement of the rising generation. The appeals which you 
propose to make to the community, for aid and support, can 
scarcely fail to call forth a generous response. It would be 
impossible to present an object more worthy of public favor." 
— Washington Hunt. 

" In the People's College at Havana, the State is to have 



16 



an Institution worthy of public and private endowment and 
munificence." — Thurlow Weed. 

Ellersbe, Rhinebeck, 9th Aug., 1858. 

Dear Sir : — I acknowledge, Avith thanks, your polite invi- 
tation to be present at Havana on the interesting occasion of 
laying the corner-stone of the People's College, an event which 
must give pleasure to every friend of practical education in 
the State, and upon which you have my cordial congratula- 
tions. 

With much respect, I am your obedient servant, 

WILLIAM KELLY. 
Eev. a. Brown, President. 



Contributions in aid of the College are solicited on condi- 
tions, as follows : 

The sums subscribed for the purpose aforesaid shall be, by 
the Trustees, safely invested in the Stock of some one of the 
States of this Union, or of the United States, or in Bonds and 
Mortgages on improved, unincumbered real estate, within the 
State of New York ; which real estate shall have been 
appraised, by disinterested men, to be worth double the amount 
loaned upon it, exclusive of buildings and perishable improve- 
ments. 

On the payment of the money subscribed, and the acceptance 
of it by the Trustees of the College, the two acts shall be 
regarded as a contract between the Trustees and the party 
paying the money, which shall be obligatory upon the succes- 
sors of the one, and the heirs and legal representatives of the 
other, binding each to the other in all of the conditions here- 
inbefore stated. 

Any person, disposed to contribute to this important object, 
may make payment to any authorized agent of the College, or 
may forAvard their subscriptions to Ex-Governor Myron H. 
Clark, No. 16 Wall street ; Hon. Erastus Brooks, Express office, 
on Park place, New York city ; or to the Treasurer of the Col- 
lege. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




